64-bit Flash for Linux dropped as Adobe preps next version

Adobe has discontinued Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux, but the company says …

Adobe has discontinued its experimental 64-bit Flash player for Linux, citing the need for significant architectural changes to the software. The company assures users that the project hasn't been abandoned.

When the 64-bit plugin was initially made available for testing purposes through an Adobe Labs project in 2008, the company promised that it would deliver full 64-bit support for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X in the next major version of Flash. Two years later, we are still waiting. In its statement about the termination of the current 64-bit Linux plugin, Adobe reaffirmed its commitment to eventually achieve full 64-bit support across all three operating systems.

"We are fully committed to bringing native 64-bit Flash Player for the desktop by providing native support for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux 64-bit platforms in an upcoming major release of Flash Player," the company wrote. "We intend to provide more regular update information on our progress as we continue our work on 64-bit versions of Flash Player."

It's likely that the push for 64-bit compatibility took a back seat while the company focused on improving support for mobile computing products. Flash's notoriously poor performance and excessive energy consumption have kept it from making inroads on handheld devices. Adobe claims that the new 10.1 version, which was released last week, will address these long-standing problems.

Mozilla recently started providing experimental 64-bit Firefox builds for Mac OS X and Linux, but these do not currently support 32-bit plugins. Most modern 64-bit Linux distributions already ship native 64-bit browser builds and use nspluginwrapper to support the 32-bit Flash player.

It's not clear exactly when Adobe will fulfill its promise of cross-platform 64-bit support. We're starting to wonder if it will be sometime around the official release of the HTML5-based Duke Nukem Forever.